Oliver is the Modern Master in Las Vegas

Sunday, June 23, 2013

eal Oliver's weekend started much like the other 4,499 players who signed up to be a part of Grand Prix Las Vegas.

It ended , however, with Oliver hosting the historic trophy as the last man standing in the largest Magic tournament ever held.

After starting 0-1 and nearly dropping, Oliver went the next 17 rounds without dropping another match on the way to his crown. Along the way he bested a field full of Melokus, Kamigawa Dragons, Kiki-Jikis, Tarmogoyfs and more of Modern Master's biggest and baddest. And when the dust settled, he grabbed the championship with nothing more than a few 1/1s, a Bonesplitter, and a plan.

Beyond Oliver's win, no Magic player, judge, tournament organizer, or spectator is likely to forget this weekend. It was a weekend when the Magic community set the record for the larges trading card game tournament ever, a weekend when scores of players turned a tournament into a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and a weekend when the community came together to do something never been done before. It was, as one player put it, the Magic event of the year.

It was also the one and only showcase for Modern Masters, a set that showcased the best Magic has offered for the past 10 years. The rich, complex, rewarding format served as both the backdrop and the highlight of an event people will still be talking about for years to come.

But while the weekend belonged to the entire community, the trophy sits firmly in Neal Oliver's steady hands.

What does it mean to you to be in the Top 8 of the biggest Grand Prix of all time? My wife and I had to put off our honeymoon for financial reasons... and it was going to be in Dublin. Now that's a reality.

Quarterfinals – Neal Oliver vs. Steve Cahill

by Blake Rasmussen

liver Neal figured out just how to do what only one other person all weekend could do.

Beat Steve Cahill's Affinity deck.

Neal's Blue-White midrange deck looked like a bit of a dog to Cahill's fast artifact-fueled beatdown coming into the match. It looked even worse after losing a fast game one. But by slowing the game down and giving himself enough time to combine Auriok Salvagers and Pyrite Spellbomb in games two and three, Oliver moved on to the semifinals in exciting fashion.

Steve Cahill

"My late game is just better," Neal said, reflecting on his mind state after losing the first game rather quickly. "The problem with Game 1 was that I thought I was an aggro deck. I didn't think the Affinity deck was out there. I didn't pass much for it, so I didn't think it was there."

But it was. I always has been when Cahill has been in the pod. He forced the archetype at every turn throughout the day, going 4-1-1 with the deck on his way to the Top 8. He was even very happy with his deck.

"That's a fairly good combination of cards there," Cahill said as he stared down the rare 2/4. With his board packed with two- and one-toughness creatures, he knew there was only so much he could do to fight back against that combination.

Neal knew it too, going so far as to simply not attack in the third game despite a significant advantage in the air. He figured as long as he didn't lose to something like Blinding Beam tempoing him out, he simply couldn't lose.

"I tried to slow him down a ton. In game three I just wanted to play ridiculously conservatively," Neal explained. "Eventually he can't kill me."

He clearly learned his lesson from the first game, where Cahill came out of the gates quickly with small beaters. All Oliver managed to do was draw a few cards with Mulldrifter (Evoked) and Careful Consideration before he was too far behind to beat an Æther Spellbomb.

In the second, Cahill mulled into a slow six-card hand and never really stood a chance. He didn't land a real creature until turn four, and by then Oliver was already set up with Auriok Salvagers and Pyrite Spellbomb.

Oliver Neal

The third game was far grindier, but eventually ended much the same way: with Auriok Salvagers putting the final Spellbomb-laden nails in Cahill's coffin. And Cahill knew it.

"That can't be good," the effusive Cahill said as Auriok Salvagers came down in the final game.

It certainly wasn't. And it meant Oliver was on his way to the Top 4 of Grand Prix Las Vegas.

Quarterfinals – Sean Collins vs. Madison Jonas

by Blake Rasmussen

oming into his first Grand Prix Top 8 appearance , Madison Jones was unsure how to feel about his deck or playing on such a big stage.

"I'm more nervous than excited," the first-time Grand Prix Top 8er said while taking his seat.

So how did he feel now that his deck had proven itself to be incredibly powerful?

"Better," he said, relaxing after making 50 million Pestermites thanks to Kiki-Jiki. "There are a million things you can do with Kiki Jiki, and you don't even see them till they're there."

Madison Jones quickly found out just how powerful his deck was.

The Pestermite combo, while how he technically won the second game, was certainly not one of the "hidden" combos Jonas was referring to. Instead, he made good use of Mogg War Marshall to grow a token army and Æthersnipe to make it impossible for Collins to gain any kind of footing.

Against almost any other board state, Collins deck would have been on solid ground. His game two Cloudgoat Ranger took an Otherworldly Journey and would have been backed by an Oona, Queen of the Fae had Jonas not had removal and Æthersnipe to completely dominate the board. In a clash of some of the format's powerful cards, it was the little Legendary Goblin that truly ruled the board.

The first game, on the other hand, was somewhat comical for the first few turns, as mulligans for both players resulted in both players missing land drops and staring at each other for the first few turns, even forced to discard to excessively large hand sizes.

The match was an excellent example of the power Modern Masters can bring to bear even in just limited. Kiki-Jiki/Pestermite is a top tier constructed strategy, and Vedalken Shackles is one of the primary draws to playing Island-heavy decks in Modern. In fact, several people we've talked with this weekend said that Vedalken Shackles was the card they'd most like to see staring back at them from the booster pack.

Sean Collins had plenty of power in his Blue White. But even his bombs weren't enough to beat the Mythics staring at him from across the board.

And even in a losing effort, Collins deck certainly lacking in power. His pair of powerful Cloudgoat Rangers were reminiscent of their reign over Lorwyn-era Standard, and the Reveillark and Oona, Queen of the Fae were both worthy of headlining constructed decks in their time. Reveillark still sees play in Modern to this day.

And that was the deck that got trounced.

Though he certainly felt good after picking up his first Top 8 match win, Jonas was down on his deck during building. He wasn't sure he had enough creatures—which led him to splash Cenn's Enlistment alongside Grand Arbiter Augustin IV and Bound in Silence—and he wasn't convinced his deck actually did much outside of a few powerful cards. He had never, as it turned out, drafted a Red Blue deck in this format before.

It turns out, fortunately for him, it does quite a lot.

Quarterfinals – Dusty Ochoa vs. Jeff Psyhos

by Nate Price

s good as it feels when that perfect card hits at the perfect time, Dusty Ochoa must be feeling really good right now.

Ochoa was able to overcome an incredibly well-timed Death Cloud for 5 in the final game of a very close match to defeat Jeff Psyhos 2-1. Thanks to the sheer size of this tournament, Psyhos still ends up with a qualification for Pro Tour Theros, even though this loss sends him home in the Quarterfinals.

"I'm nervous," Psyhos said as he sat down to the table. "This is my first Grand Prix Day 2 ever. This is only my third Grand Prix ever, now I'm qualified for the Pro Tour!"

Jeff Psyhos

Ochoa, meanwhile, is no stranger to the rigors of Sunday play, having graced the final table of Pro Tour Dragon's Maze roughly a month ago. The same kind of poise that he had to show in that Top 8 had to resurface in the final game, when he found his back against the wall. Normally, opening with a pair of Durkwood Baloth suspensions would be a reason to celebrate, but Ochoa's were more of a countdown to some serious pain, as Psyhos followed them up with an immediate suspension of Phthisis. Resolving a Phthisis against a Baloth would half Ochoa's life total. Considering Psyhos's follow-up Stinkweed Imp, it looked like neither Baloth would be anything but trouble for Ochoa.

Still, he pressed on. Using Kodoma's Reach, Ochoa was able to run out a pair of kicked Citanul Woodreaders, blowing through his deck. As the Baloths came off of suspend, they joined the fray. The first ran headlong into the Stinkweed Imp. The other, hitting play a turn before the Phthisis, ran right into an Epochrasite.

This was a blessing in disguise for Ochoa. The damage from the Epochrasite allowed him to tap out for a Molten Disaster for four, wiping everything but a Faerie Macabre on Psyhos's side. This meant that when the Phthisis unsuspended on the following turn, Psyhos had to not only kill his only creature, but the hit dropped him to 8 life. It was a masterful reversal by Ochoa.

Yet one more masterful reversal remained. Ochoa filled the void with creatures of his own, taking the lead on the board. Now in significant peril, Psyhos tapped out for a Death Cloud for 5, killing all creatures, crushing life totals, emptying hands, and going to three lands apiece. It was a demolishing turn of events. The cherry on top was that this came with one turn left on his Epochrasite's suspension. Next turn, he'd have a hasty 4/4 attacker joining his side. Even worse, a dredged Stinkweed Imp would give Psyhos another evasive attacker.

Dusty Ochoa

Now Ochoa was the one against the wall. Facing down lethal in two turns, Ochoa had to rely on the heart of the cards. Citanul Woodreaders. It gave him a blocker. His next draw was a dredged Moldervine Cloak, making his Woodreaders big enough to block the Epochrasite, and threatening lethal himself. This perfect series of draws put the game back to one big Mexican standoff. It just needed one more grain of sand to drop to tip the scales. Torrent of Stone was the first grain. Glacial Ray was the second. Over one end step and then the following turn, the spells combined to remove Psyhos's blockers, giving Ochoa one of the tightest matches I've seen in a while.

The other two games had their own perfect moments, as well, though less pronounced than those of the final game. The first game revolved around Kira, Great Glass Spinner, which Psyhos used to prevent Ochoa from interacting with any of his fliers or the Rathi Trapper that was keeping his large monsters tapped down. It hit during the only window it could to prevent Ochoa from using Glacial Ray to kill the Trapper, likely sealing the game. The second game saw Ochoa bounce back, outlasting a suspended Phthisis before dropping Meloku the Clouded Mirror into play. Psyhos tried to kill it, but fell just short in the worst possible way: revealing a Horobi's Whisper to an Erratic Mutation.

Quarterfinals – Lance Hartbarger vs. Justin Nguyen

by Nate Price

can't help but feel sympathy when I see a person mulligan in every game of a Grand Prix elimination match. Lance Hartbarger may change how I feel about that.

Hartbarger's three-color Thallid deck was forced to mulligan in each of the three games he played in his Quarterfinals match, but it didn't stop him from putting together the cards he needed to win the match. In the end, it was Justin Nguyen and his BW Rebels deck that I felt sorry for, as he ended Game 3 with a pair of Amrou Scouts in play, but only three Plains behind them.

Justin Nguyen

"I didn't think I made it," Nguyen admitted with a smile after arriving at the Feature Match area. "They announced the Top 8 and I heard that I hadn't made it. Then all of a sudden they came on and said that I actually had, and I just lost it."

Hartbarger began every one of his games in this Quarterfinals with a mulligan, and it was Search for Tomorrow that bailed him out every time. In all three games, he suspended the land-searcher, each time putting himself back into the game and recovering from his mulligan.

Nguyen didn't sit idle, though. His draw had a few cards that were perfect foils in this matchup. Hillcomber Giant and Faerie Macabre provided evasive threats that simply became a clock that Hartbarger couldn't match. His Ryusei didn't get to even attack before a Bound in Silence locked it down, and he couldn't find a way to kill Nguyen's mountainwalker, let alone his own Ryusei. After peeling well, his draw fell off, as Nguyen continued to build. Rathi Trapper allowed his Faeries to begin attacking, and it was only a few turns before he took home the first game.

"One of these board is not like the other," Hartbarger said, looking at his decimated board before picking up his cards.

While this was surely depressing enough, Hartbarger looked even more upset when he was forced to mulligan yet again. This second mulligan resulted in a one-land hand with Search for Tomorrow and Giant Dustwasp. His deck once again provided the tools he needed to peel out of it, but this time it provided him an offense that was even more difficult to stymie. A pair of Thallid Shell-Dwellers and a Sporesower Thallid made an unreasonably large number of spore counters incredibly quickly. Nguyen had a pair of Rathi Trappers, but Hartbarger's threats were more diffuse, and the swarm began to build.

After an exciting couple of games to begin, the last game was fairly anticlimactic. Hartbarger again mulliganned into a two-land hand, and a ripped Search for Tomorrow paved the way for him to ramp all the way through Penubra Spider and Giant Duskwasp into Ryusei, the Falling Star. While this was happening, Nguyen, who had kept an entirely reasonable hand with a pair of Amrou Scouts and three lands, had failed to draw a fourth land. Worse still, he was stuck on all Plains, trapping the Rathi Trapper in his hand. Three mulligans after the match began, Hartbarger was advancing to the Semifinals.

Semifinals – Neal Oliver vs. Dusty Ochoa

by Nate Price

f you ever questioned why cards like Mothdust Changeling are in Modern Masters, question no more.

The first game was all Ochoa, as Penumbra Spider shut down Oliver's offense. While Oliver tried to set up a recursion cycle with Auriok Salvagers and Pyrite Spellbomb to take things to a late game victory, Ochoa stuck to his game plan of making dinosaurs and then making opponents extinct. After dealing a good chunk of damage to Oliver with an Imperiosaur that outclassed all of Oliver's team, Ochoa aimed a Molten Disaster straight at the remainder of Oliver's life total.

Down a game, Oliver was able to really showcase the power of his deck in the second game. Opening with a fast Bonesplitter/Mothdust Changeling/Spellstutter Sprite draw, Oliver's draw was all about dealing damage now and worrying about the rest later. Ochoa, meanwhile, was building for the future, suspending a pair of Durkwood Baloths and setting up for later control. But Oliver's draw was just too fast. Taking surprisingly large chunks of Ochoa's life total away every turn, Oliver had managed to reduce Ochoa to a mere 6 before his first Baloth even sniffed the board. With things so close to finishing, Oliver added a Flickerwisp to his team, handing it a Bonesplitter for the final attack. Between it, his other flier, and a Pyrite Spellbomb, Oliver managed a quick turn-seven kill.

Now that the big guns were out, Oliver started to have to use his creatures for defense. Fortunately, Bonesplitter made even the most modest of creatures a fearsome defender. Avian Changeling traded with the Ancient. Flickerwisp would have eaten a Durkwood Baloth if Torrent of Stone hadn't intervened. Little by little, Oliver found ways to keep himself alive in the face of large attackers.

With Ochoa at 10, Oliver put his racing boots on overdrive. The Pyrite Spellbomb that had acted as a deterrent went straight at Ochoa's face. The Mothdust Changeling sent for another three. A Lightning Helix did three and allowed Oliver to survive a lethal next attack. Then, from the top of his deck, another Pyrite Spellbomb sealed the deal. It was an incredible turn of events, and it was all thanks to the utter power of Bonesplitter. Without the efficient Equipment, Oliver wouldn't have been able to block and trade effectively, and he wouldn't have been able to attack either. Bonesplitter effectively did ten damage to Ochoa over the course of the game, and much more to creatures. It nearly single-handedly lifted Oliver up and into the finals.

Semifinals – Madison Jonas vs. Lance Hartbarger

by Nate Price

ven though the heat was much stronger here in Las Vegas while the sun was still up, the biggest sweat of the weekend came during this match.

Game 1 was a ticking time bomb from about turn four. While Hartbarger was on the offensive, it was Jonas's deck that contained the bomb. Sitting in his hand was a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker. Sitting on his board was a Pestermite.

Hartbarger's Kitchen Finks and Saproling Tokens continued their assault, however, and Jonas found his life total dipping into the red. While at 2 life, he had a chance to Erratic Mutation and Rift Bolt Ryusei if needed, which would have cleared the board, but he didn't make the play. Instead, he let the final attack finish him off. Kiki-Jiki ended the game in his hand, staring at the two useless Mountains in front of Jonas.

This game, it was a different race against the clock. Hartbarger had the same style of offense he found in the first game, using a couple of Thallids and a Saproling to whittle away at Jonas's life. This time, he was able to get a small army of Saprolings into play, but a Thundercloud Shaman cleared them all away. He continued with the stall tactics, using removal spells and any other means he could to keep alive while he tried to piece together his combo. Jonas held the Pestermite and had the Mountains, he just needed to Kiki-jiki. He used Cenn's Enlistment to generate enough blockers to begin to keep alive.

"That's a nice reactive deck you've got there," Hartbarger said after failing to get through for damage for a fourth consecutive turn.

That was all about to end. Hartbarger ripped for his turn, tapped all of his lands, and entwined a Rude Awakening. The resulting attack made Jonas double count the amount of damage coming through, and he almost scooped to it. After a second look, he realized that he was alive and at 2 life. This sliver was all he needed. Vedalken Shackles took the Penumbra Spider on Hartbarger's side, and Kiki-Jiki made sure there was more where that came from. Each turn, his shadow Spider army grew until he finally had enough attackers to finish Hartbarger off, capping off a dramatic comeback from the brink of death.

So far, the bomb had passed hands multiple times. This time, it would explode for the final time.

In a flurry, he removed the Finks with Erratic Mutation, stole a Penumbra Spider cast on the following turn, and that was it. Hartbarger had nothing to stop him with as the Spider went the distance, sending Jonas into the finals to face Neal Oliver!

Finals – Madison Jonas vs. Neal Oliver

by Blake Rasmussen

fter a weekend dominated by big spells, powerful creatures, and the best cards the last 10 years have to offer, it was a flurry of flying Bonesplitter-wielding Faeries that ultimately pushed Neal Oliver over the top against Madison Jonas, leaving Oliver as the champion of the largest Grand Prix ever held.

Oliver, who nearly dropped after starting the tournament 0-1 with zero byes, rattled off 17 rounds without losing again

"Never won a PTQ, always lose the first round of the Top 8," Oliver said. "This is ridiculous."

It was that very Kiki-Jiki that Oliver had to worry about in the finals, as Jonas packed both the powerful mythic and Pestermite, meaning he could combine the two to win out of nowhere. He also had Vedalken Shackles and a ton of removal.

The first game of the finals was Oliver's to lose right from the start, as Jonas was forced to mull to five cards after seeing successive one-land hands. Nonetheless, Jonas started picking apart Oliver's tiny flying force bit by bit, only to be stymied by a Spellstutter Sprite that had enough friends to counter a Torrent of Stone.

Ultimately it might have been Jonas' White splash that kept him from coming back. In the finals, he repeatedly found himself short on red mana, but always had one of the few Plains in his deck. There's no telling what that land might have been otherwise, but it caused noticeable hiccups in his development.

Oliver, on the other hand, was able to cleanly support his Red splash thanks to several land cyclers and the fact that the Red was only supporting Pyrite Spellbomb. And while the Bonesplitter-wielding 1/1s will get most of the press, it was two damage from one copy of the artifact Shock that set up the final lethal swing.

And to think, it all might not have been.

After dropping his first match of the day, Oliver gave serious consideration to dropping and emphasizing the vacation part of the weekend over the Magic portion. He told himself he'd drop if he lost just one more time.

Neal Oliver

Except, he just never lost, right up until his monumental, and certainly memorable, victory.

Even before the win, Oliver was awed to be in the Top 8 of a tournament we won't soon forget.

"Amazing. I'm happy to be a part of history," he wrote on his player profile before the Top 8 draft.

He's not just a part of it any more. Neal Oliver has made history as the Champion of Grand Prix Las Vegas.

Top Five Cards of Grand Prix Houson

It didn't take Neal Oliver's Bonesplitter-fueled finals win to convince us to place Bonesplitter atop this list, but it certainly didn't hurt. This common piece of Equipment was everywhere this weekend and, moreover, was very, very good. It paced Affinity decks, added punch to flying Faeries, and let smaller creatures trade with bombs. Cheap, colorless and highly impactful, nearly every player was happy to have Bonesplitter on their side, and equally unhappy to see it equipped to an opponent's critter.

Setting the standard for powerful limited Equipment from the very invention of Equipment way back in Mirrodin block, Bonesplitter may not be as powerful as Sword of Light and Shadow or as flashy as Sword of Fire and Ice, but it shows up far more often and does nearly as much work winning games quickly and efficiently.

Easily splashable, virtually unbeatable, and flexibly defensive and aggressive, Meloku the Clouded Mirror dominated more games this weekend than probably any other rare. Players went out of their way to make room for the five-mana Legend. Dustin Ochoa said he owed much of his success this weekend to the Clouded one, sporting copies during both the sealed and the draft portions of the event. In fact, when asked what Ochoa's favorite draft archetype was, he simply answered "Draft Meloku. If not, have cards to kill it."

If Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker weren't Mythic, it very well could have been more dominant than Meloku this weekend. As it was, it had to settle for merely being backbreaking a smaller percentage of the time. Players combined the combo-machine with Pestermite all weekend to build a constructed-worthy combo that ended the game immediately. And even if that machine gun wasn't available, a plethora of value creatures—from Æthersnipe to Warren Pilferers to Mulldrifter—let Kiki-Jiki dominate whenever it hit the battlefield.

Madison Jonas' copy of the five-mana 2/2 was instrumental in his trip to the finals. In the first round, he made 50 million Pestermites to take a game that had already been dominated by Æthersnipe copies. And in the semifinals, he crawled back from two life to win the match when he started making copies of a stolen Penumbra Spider followed by copies of a stolen Kitchen Finks.

That was the plea of one player on Twitter, but judging from the number of people killed by Tromp this weekend, that wasn't much of a problem at the Grand Prix.

Time and time again players would survey the board, do some math, and watch their opponents sink after tapping six mana. Typically not even as big as Overrun and costing one more mana, Tromp is nonetheless a key component of the Thallids deck. And five-color decks. And decks that have Green mana. And decks that have creatures.

Cited by many as the best common in the set, no one wanted to see the Time Spiral Illusion suspended on the other side of the table on turn two. Several Day 1 undefeated decks were heavy on the suspend theme, and Errant Ephemeron was always front and center of that plan. Sam Black, for one, rode his pair of Ephemerons, and their uncommon buddy Riftwing Cloudskate, to a pristine record in the sealed portion of the event. It's power is high enough that it gets picked and played highly, despite lacking any of the set's inherent synergy with any of the main archetypes. Sometimes, a 4/4 flier is more than enough, as Ephemeron showed us time and time again.